Computer user interface system and method

ABSTRACT

A computer user interface system and method arranges a set of information hosted on a computer into a set of books, where each book includes a subset of the set of information, labels each book with a respective portion of the subset of the set of information, and selects a book from the set of books. Selecting the book from the set of books includes steps of displaying the respective portions of the books as a book document image that includes pages which correspond to the respective portions of the books, generating a command for moving through the pages, displaying an animated image of the pages of the book document being at least one of flipped, scrolled, slid and flashed images, and selecting the book when a selected one of the pages containing a selection portion of the book is earlier displayed.

This application is related to copending patent application, serialNo.______, filed herewith and copending patent application, Ser. No.08/311,454, filed Sep. 26, 1994, both of which are incorporated hereinby reference.

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION

1. Field of the Invention

The present invention relates to a computer user interface system andmethod for the purpose of browsing through documents stored in acomputer. Specifically, the present invention facilitates the browsingof a document stored in a computer in such a way that it allows a rapidview of what contents are present and the organization of the materialin the document, as well as rapid access to the items in the documentinvolved.

2. Description of the Prior Art

Currently, the method for viewing documents stored in a computer isthrough a computer monitor screen. For documents that are longer/largerthan can be contained within one screen, a means is provided to scrollthe document up and down or to jump to a particular point in thedocument (through the use of, for example, a “mouse” coupled with scrollbars at the edges of the document displayed on the screen or through theuse of hypertext links).

However, most people do not find this a particularly convenient way toview a document, as compared with a book. That this is true is evidencedin the fact that despite the fact that the computer has been inincreasing use, there is not only no corresponding reduction in paperuse, but an increase in paper quantity is required to print what isconveniently stored in a computer that can be seemingly easily andflexibly manipulated for viewing. Sometimes the printed version of theinformation involved is necessary, like in the case of printing apicture on a sheet of paper to be pasted on some surface (e.g., a wall),or in the case of the convenience of having a relatively light, hardypaperback book for reading in almost any possible situation andlocation, but there are times when a reader is quite happy to sit at adesk in front of a desktop computer or handle a notebook computer awayfrom the desk, and yet the reader would still prefer a printed versionof the document in a hand-held format. This is especially true in thecase of looking through manuals, including software manuals, tounderstand how to operate a device or software application. The irony isthat computer software packages usually come with thick and heavymanuals containing information which can easily be stored on alight-weight CD-ROM, and even if the manuals are sometimes dispensed inthe form of a CD-ROM, more often than not people would print them outinto a hard-copy format in order to facilitate reading.

What is involved when one interacts with the printed material in a bookis a subtle and complicated process. To start with, material in a bookis presented in a sequential order, with a continuity of material frompage to page, and there is also a hierarchical structure in the materialpresented (as the material is organized into chapters, sections,subsections, etc.) because ideas in the material are related to eachother in some kind of conceptual hierarchy. The human perceptual systeminputs data in a sequential manner, and after a book is read from thebeginning to the end in a sequential fashion, the brain then recreatesthe conceptual hierarchy after viewing the material involved. However,very often one does not read a book (or input the material involved)from the beginning to the end because (a) one wants to have an overviewof the material present; (b) one is searching for something of interestto him/her; or (c) one is interested in reading only portions of thebook (in the case of, say, reading the manual to understand how tooperate something). In these cases, one browses through the subject bookto find the material of unique interest to that reader.

Two basic things are achieved in the browsing process. First, thebrowser has a glimpse of what are the contents of the book document.Second, the browser has an idea of approximately where the items ofinterest are so that the. browser can (a) return to look for them laterwhen needed, and (b) have an understanding of the relationships betweenthe material currently being viewed and other material i.e., anunderstanding of the hierarchical structure nvolved). When browsing abook document, many finger-perations are required of the browser inorder to flip through the pages and, together with the inherentsequential order imposed by the pages, very quickly allow the browser tohave an understanding of the nature, location and organization of thematerial involved.

In the process of browsing through a book, one can perform the followingoperations:

(a) flip through the pages at varying speeds depending on the level ofdetail at Which one wishes to view the material in the book;

(b) jump to the approximate location of the item of interest;

(c) change the direction of flipping (forward or backward) very rapidlybecause

-   -   (i) one would like to compare and contrast material on different        pages,    -   (ii) after jumping to an approximate location of some items of        interest one would like to find their exact locations, or    -   (iii) one is unsure of where the item of interest is and is in        the process of searching for it; and

(d) mark the locations of some pages of interest that one may want tolater return.

All these operations are performed very rapidly with the fingersinteracting with the flipping pages and with minimal unnecessarymovements of the fingers and hands. Interestingly, a book/magazine withsoft and flexible pages is harder to handle because more finger and handmovements are needed to browse through it, while books with stiff pagescan be browsed with almost no movement of the hand.

In currently available methods of browsing through documents stored in acomputer, e.g., the use of a mouse combined with scroll bars and buttonson the computer screen, more movements of the hands are necessary toeffect the various operations described above. Also, fine control of thehand or fingers (depending on whether the mouse uses hand movement tomove the cursor on the screen or finger movement like in the case of atrack ball) is necessary to position the cursor on the screen at therequired places. The process is both lengthy and clumsy. The lengthinessof the process taxes the human short term memory's ability to rememberitems encountered in the recent past for the purpose of establishing therelationships between items and the clumsiness of the process createsdistraction and interferes with the short term memory process, a wellknown effect in perceptual psychology.

Because material in a book is organized into pages, it also enhances theability of the reader to better remember the location of variousportions of the material involved. Also, unlike the process of scrollingthrough a document on a screen like what is normally done in aword-processor, wherein the contents become a blur and reading isimpossible, when one moves through the material in a book throughflipping, one is still able to read at least the approximate contents,if not the details. It is due to these features that a person browsingthrough a book can acguire a good understanding of its contents, thelocation of specific items and organization of the material.

It is because of the reasons set forth above, people still prefer toread a book in their hands, rather than a document image displayed on acomputer screen using currently available methods.

U.S. Pat. No. 5,467,102 (Kuno et al.) discloses a device for documentviewing that consists of two display screens. One of the purposes ofusing two display screens is to allow the user to display two differentpages from the document so that they can be read side-by-side (e.g., adiagram and its textual explanation). Another purpose is to allow alarge picture to be displayed simultaneously on both pages. The Kuno etal. device allows users to change the speed of movement through thedocument through a pressure sensor—the more pressure applied, the fasterthe pages in the document are moved through. The Kuno et al. device alsoallows the document to be viewed in the forward or backward direction bypressing on a forward sensor area or a reverse sensor area respectively.One can also select a page to jump to by pressing on an icon displayedon the screen. However the Kuno et al. device still does not provide thesame convenience as browsing through a book, primarily because whenswitching between the operations for different controls—the speed ofmovement through the document, the change of direction of viewing, andthe jumping to different parts of the document—there are a lot more handand finger movements than is the case in manipulating a physical book.Moreover, the Kuno et al. device is a specialized, relatively costlydevice with sensors and hardware built onto two display screens, whereasthe present inventor recognizes that a lower cost and more practicaldevice would be one that adds modularly to the existing computer system.

Currently, there are also computer mice that can eliminate theabove-mentioned problem of positioning cursor on the computer screenwith.a conventional mouse (i.e., fine control of the hand or fingers isneeded). These mice allow the user to specify “hot locations” on thescreen on which the cursor “homes onto” with less fine control thanconventional mice. Furthermore, a subset of these mice can generate“vertical only” or “horizontal only” movement of the cursor so that thescrolling process requires less fine control of the muscle than isrequired with a conventional mouse. These mice eliminate some, but notall, of the problems associated with the conventional methods ofcomputer input as far as computer-based document browsing is concerned.

In U.S. Pat. No. 5,417,575 (1995) McTaggart discloses an electronic bookthat comprises.laminated sheets bound together in the form of a book. Oneach of these sheets, printed material is arranged on the top layer andbelow that layer is an electronic backdrop containing thinlight-emitting diodes (LED's) and pressure sensitive switches affixedonto a backing sheet. The LED's generate visual signals that can be seenthrough the top layer for the purpose of highlighting parts of theprinted material. The pressure switches, positioned under certain itemsin the printed material, are for the purpose of sensing the user'sselection of those items. A speaker is also provided on the book togenerate audio signals for explaining the text or giving the user audiofeedback. Contact or photo-sensitive switches are also embedded in thepages to allow the electronic circuits to know which pages are currentlybeing viewed, so that the appropriate audio and visual signals can begenerated. Even though this apparatus is in a form that allows a personto handle it like handling a typical book, with visual and audioenhancements of the printed material as well as facilities that acceptthe user's feedback, it is basically a hard-wired device that is notreprogrammable and different hardware has to be configured for bookswith different contents. No provision is available for downloadingdocument files from a computer for display on the electronic book nor isthe electronic book able to display any arbitrary document file. Thisdevice is hence not suitable for browsing through documents stored in acomputer.

Therefore, the inventor has identified there exists a need for alow-cost, modular device that can be connected to existing computersystems and that permits easy, effective computer-based documentbrowsing that approaches that of browsing through a book.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION

In view of the aforementioned short-comings of presently availableschemes for browsing through documents stored in a computer, oneobjective of the present invention is to provide a browsing device thatexploits the use of finger operations normally involved in browsingthrough a book, namely, the change of speed of movement through thedocument involved, the change of direction of movement through thedocument, the jumping to other portions of the document, and thebookmarking of pages (e.g., when a page is bookmarked, it can bereturned/jumped to later very quickly by using the controls operated bythe fingers).

Another objective of the invention is that the positioning and design ofthe controls for the above-mentioned operations performed by the fingersare such that they allow almost no movement of the hand and minimalmovements of the fingers, thus maximizing the ease of browsing throughthe stored document. The dexterity of the human fingers is to be fullyexploited for these controls.

A further objective of the invention is to provide a low cost, modularbrowsing device that can be easily attached to existing computer systemsmuch like how a mouse attaches tc a computer system.

Still a further objective is to provide a reconf igurable construct forthe browsing device so that it can be (a) configured into a hand-heldcontroller; (b) attached to the sides of existing computer screens; (c)configured to cooperate with a mouse so that there is no need to movethe user's hand(s) when switching between browser-related operations andmouse-related operations; and (d) configured to cooperate with agyro-mouse so that the entire assembly can be used in the absence of atable top. The method is chosen by the user depending on his/herpreference.

Another objective of the invention is to provide a means to display, onthe computer screen, the document to be browsed through using thebrowsing device. The display is in the form of a computer book togetherwith showing the thicknesses of material in the document before andafter the currently viewed material, showing of the bookmarks, andshowing, on the thicknesses, of the location of the pages that would bejumped to at any given time if jumping were to be effected.

Another objective of the invention is to provide the following fivemethods of organizing the material in the document and correspondingdisplay formats: (a) organized into pages and can be flipped throughpage by page from right to left or vice versa, much like what happenswhen one flips through a book; (b) organized into pages and.can beflipped through page by page from bottom to top or vice versa, much likewhat happens when one flips through a notepad; (c) organized into pagesand slid through page by page from right to left or vice versa, muchlike what happens when one views a microfilm; (d) organized into pagesthat can be flashed one after another; (e) organized so to be scrolledthrough, with no distinct page boundaries, much like what is normallydone in a word-processor. The first three methods incur more cost interms of storage space and processing time, but when used together withthe aforementioned browsing device result in a browsing process thatmost resembles that of browsing through a book, a notepad, or amicro-film. The last two methods demand less storage space and reducedprocessing time, and even though these two methods do not preciselyemulate the book-browsing process, they can still benefit from therapidity of finger control effected on the browsing device.

Another objective of the invention is to provide simultaneous multipleindexing in conjunction with the inventive browsing system. When akeyword of interest is encountered in the reading of the document theuser selects it using a cursor on the screen in conjunction with apointing device such as a mouse, like what is normally done in currentcomputer systems, or using his/her finger in conjunction with a touch orpressure sensing screen, or other methods. In response, the pages onwhich explanations or other issues related to this keyword reside arebookmarked by the inventive system, after which the user can quicklyflip to one of these pages using the mechanisms provided in the browsingsystem.

Another objective of the invention is to use the above-mentionedbrowsing facility in conjunction with other software that can reorganizethe material in the document involved to facilitate browsing/viewing—forexample, the positioning of material for comparison side by side on thepages currently being viewed.

Another objective of the invention is to use the above-mentionedbrowsing facility in conjunction with software that can highlightselected portions of the material or annotate on the pages in thedocument involved to facilitate browsing/viewing/reading.

Yet another objective of the invention is to provide the above-mentionedbrowsing facility to a word processor to facilitate the entering,processing, and viewing/browsing of material in a word processor.

Another objective of the invention is to provide the above-mentionedbrowsing facility to any software in which information cannot be fittedwithin one computer screen for viewing or manipulating.

Yet another objective of the invention is to provide a new metaphor—the“library metaphor”—to the computer operating system's human interface inwhich information on the computer screen which is traditionallypresented in the form of windows can now be presented in the form of“books”.

The above-mentioned objects can also be achieved by providing a browsingdevice for browsing through document that includes, a top surface, asensor surface and a bottom surface. A sensor area on the sensor surfacedetects the position of a finger along one direction and the force ofthe finger on the sensor area. The browsing device also includes fourbuttons/on-off switches on the bottom surface, and foul additionalbuttons/on-off switches on the said top surface, each of which isoperated by the fingers. An electrical circuit converts the force andposition of the finger on the sensor area as detected by the force andposition sensors on that area into electrical forms and outputs them.The electrical circuit also outputs the on/off states of the fourbuttons/on-off switches on the bottom surface, and four additionalbuttons/on-off switches on the said top surface.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

A more complete appreciation of the invention and many of the attendantadvantages thereof will be readily obtained as the same becomes betterunderstood by reference to the following detailed description whenconsidered in connection with the accompanying drawings, wherein:

FIG. 1A is the block diagram of the browsing device according to thepresent invention, detailing input commands and output signals.

FIG. 1B is a schematic perspective view of a first embodiment of thebrowsing device.

FIG. 2A is a top/bottom perspective view of the browsing deviceconfigured into a mini-book configuration used in conjunction with acomputer.

FIG. 2B is front perspective view of the browsing device configured intoa screen configuration used in conjunction with a computer.

FIG. 2C is a front perspective view of the browsing device configuredinto a mouse configuration used in conjunction with a computer.

FIG. 2D is a front perspective view of the browsing device configuredinto a gyro-m6use configuration used in conjunction with a computer.

FIG. 2E is a front perspective view of the browsing device configuredinto a one-hand configuration used in conjunction with a computer.

FIG. 2F is a front perspective view of the browsing device configuredinto a one-hand-gyro-mouse configuration used in conjunction with acomputer.

FIG. 3 is a top perspective view of a computer book displayed on ascreen that is to be browsed through using browsing device of thepresent invention.

FIG. 4 is a flowchart that details the mechanisms for jumping to otherparts of the document being viewed/browsed through and movement througha document under the control of the thumb on the browsing device ofpresent invention.

FIG. 5A is an top perspective view of the computer book of the presentinvention that uses a flipping method of moving through a document.

FIG. 5B is a top view of the computer book of the present invention thatuses a sliding method of moving through a document.

FIG. 5C is a top view of the computer book of the present invention thatuses a flashing method of moving through a document.

FIG. 5D is a top view of the computer book of the present invention thatuses a scrolling method of moving through a document.

FIG. 5E is a top perspective view of the computer book of the presentinvention that uses a vertical flipping method of moving through adocument.

FIG. 6A is a top perspective view of an open fan display for displayingpages and that is used in conjunction with the flipping method of movingthrough the document illustrated in FIG. 5A.

FIG. 6B is a top perspective view of a collapsed fan display fordisplaying pages and that is used in conjunction with the flippingmethod of moving through the document illustrated in FIG. 5A.

FIG. 7 is a schematic block diagram of the browsing system thatincorporates the inventive browsing device of FIG. 1B.

FIG. 8 is a schematic electrical block diagram of the browsing device ofFIG. 1B.

FIG. 9 is a schematic perspective view of another embodiment of thebrowsing device that uses many thin, hard, and flexible pieces ofmaterial bound together in the manner of the binding of the pages of abook.

FIG. 10 is a top/bottom schematic perspective view of another embodimentof the browsing device that uses a display screen fitted to a slantedsurface to display a material thicknesses before or after currentlyviewed material.

FIG. 11A is a comparative schematic diagram ofdirectories/sub-directories in a “window” compared with pages of acomputer book that uses the flipping method of FIG. 5A in order to movethrough the book.

FIG. 11B is a comparative schematic diagram ofdirectories/sub-directories and the files in a “windows” system comparedwith chapters and sections in a computer book that uses the flippingmethod of FIG. SA to move through the book.

FIG. 11C is a comparative schematic diagram of working windows in a“windows” system compared with pages of a computer book that uses theflipping method of FIG. 5A to move through the book.

FIG. 12 is a flowchart of a method for displaying a set of informationon a display screen as controlled by a. browsing device.

FIG. 13 is a flowchart of a method for browsing a set of information ona display screen.

FIG. 14 is a flowchart of a user-interface method according to thelibrary metaphor aspect of the present invention.

DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS

Referring now to the.drawings, wherein like reference numerals designateidentical or corresponding parts throughout the several views, and moreparticularly to FIG. 1A thereof which depicts the browsing device 100according to the present invention that can be used in conjunction withexisting computer systems for the purpose of browsing through documentsor any information stored in the computer. Four commands are input anddetected by the browsing device 100. These commands include thefollowing: (a) specifying whether a movement in a forward direction orin a backward direction through the document is to be performed; (b)specifying a speed of the movement described in (a); (c) jumping to aspecified location in the document or information involved; and (d)specifying that certain portions of the document or the informationinvolved is to be bookmarked. Based on these commands, signals aregenerated and output to effect the necessary operations in a computersystem (e.g., computer 205 in FIG. 2A) attached to the browsing device100.

FIG. 1B depicts one embodiment of the primary browsing device 100according to the present invention. The browsing device 100 consists ofa slanted surface 120, extending from a top surface 110 of the browsingdevice 100. The slanted surface 120 supports a user's thumb 122 on whichto rest, although the user may use another instrument or finger as well.During operation, four other fingers 141-144 are placed on a bottomsurface 130 of the device, opposed to the thumb 122. On the slantedsurface 120 a set of force and position sensors disposed in a sensorarea 121 (sensors such as an appropriately customized version ofInterlink electronics Thin-film Linear Potentiometer Part Number 360)detect (a) a force of the thumb 122 on the slanted surface 120 withinthe sensor area 121 and (b) the position of the thumb 122 (or one of theother fingers) in the sensor area 121 in the direction of the slant.Henceforth the direction of the slant is referred to as an x-direction,as shown in FIG. 1B, where the positive x-direction points away from theedge that adjoins the top surface 110 and the slanted surface 120. Theposition of the thumb 122 (or one of the other fingers) in they-direction (a direction perpendicular to the x-direction on the slantedsurface 120) gauges whether the thumb 122 remains on the sensor area121.

Four buttons/switches 131-134 are placed on the bottom surface 130,within easy reach of the four fingers (141-144) during those operationswhen these fingers (141-144) are placed on the bottom surface 130. Onthe top surface 110 of the device 100, another four buttons/switches(111-114) are placed, preferably parallel to the edge adjoining the topsurface 110 and the slanted surface 120, as shown in FIG. 1B.

The force of the thumb 122 (or one of the other fingers) on the sensorarea 121 dictates how fast to move through the document, and theposition of the thumb 122 (or one of the other fingers) along thex-direction dictates the point to which the document is jumped. Moreparticularly, the buttons (131-134, and 111-114) on the bottom and topsurfaces (130 and 110 respectively) are for the purposes of bookmarking.The use of these buttons (131-134, 111-114) depends on the particularconfiguration in which the browsing device 100 is used and will bedescribed below.

FIGS. 2A-2F depict alternative configurations to employ the browsingdevice 100 for producing the browsing input. The browsing device 100depicted in FIG. 1B is preferably used with an operator's right hand. Aleft-hand version of the browsing device 101 as depicted in FIG. 2A isemployed in some of the embodiments depicted in FIGS. 2A-2P.

FIG. 2A depicts one embodiment of the mini-book configuration 200 inwhich a left-hand version 101 and a right-hand version 100 of thebrowsing device 100 are joined back-to-back through latching mechanisms151 and 152 as shown in FIG. 1B and the resulting assembly 200 iselectrically operatively connected to the computer 205 (such as an IBMAptiva A92, Part Number 42H0333). In operation, the left and the righthands operate the devices on the left and right respectively, hence theleft thumb 172 and right thumb 122 rest on the left and right sensorareas (171 and 121) respectively. The other four fingers of both handsare placed near the buttons (131-134, 181-184) on the bottom surfaces130 and 180 of both the left and right devices. In this configuration,the buttons (111-114, 161-164) on top surfaces 110, 160 are availablefor auxiliary functions.

In this configuration, the direction of movement (i.e., forward orbackward) through the document (using flipping or other methods, all tobe described in detail later) is effected through the force applied bythe right and left thumbs (122 and 172) on the sensor areas 121 and 171respectively. The right thumb 122 force activates a forward movementthrough the document and the left thumb 172 force activates a backwardmovement. The speed of movement is preferably proportional to the forceapplied, although other force/speed relationships may be employedsuccessfully. The right thumb 122 operating the right sensor area 121activates jumping to points in the document involved that lie betweenthe currently viewed material in the document and the end of thedocument and the left thumb 171 operating the left sensor area 172activates jumping to points in the document involved that lie betweenthe currently viewed material in the document and the beginning of thedocument. The right fingers other than the thumb 122 operating thebuttons 131-134 on the bottom surface 130 create bookmarks for points inthe document involved that lie between the currently viewed material inthe document and the end of the document and the left fingers other thanthe thumb 172 operating the corresponding buttons 181-184 on thecorresponding bottom surface 180 create bookmarks for points in thedocument involved that lie between the currently viewed material in thedocument and the beginning of the document.

An x-direction is defined along the slanted surface for the left-handdevice 101 that is perpendicular to the edge adjoining the top surface160 and the slanted surface 170 of the left-hand device 101 and thepositive x-direction is taken to be the direction away from that edge asillustrated in FIG. 2A. The operations to be described below for thesensor areas 121 or 171 and for the buttons on the bottom surfaces131-134 or 181-184 are similar for both the right-hand device 100 andthe left-hand device 101 and unless necessary, only the operations forthe right-hand device 100 will be described.

The position of the thumb 122 in the x-direction on the sensor area 121(refer to FIG. 1B) as detected by toe position sensors on the slantedsurface 120 determines the page in the document to jump to (for thecases in which the material in the document is organized into pages tobe flipped, slid or flashed on the computer screen, the details of whichwill be described later) or the point in the document to jump to (forthe case in which material in the document is not organized into pageslike in the case of the use of scrolling to move through the document).Let x=0 (the origin) be the point at which the slanted surface 120 meetsthe.top surface 110. The thumb 122 will be referred to as being “at”position xl when it covers the point xl and some contiguous points tothe “right” of x1, i.e., some of the contiguous points x such that x>x1,and “right” refers to the conventional positive axial direction. This isbecause the intersection of the thumb 122 and the slanted surface 120(in the sensor area 121) on the browsing device 100 has a small spatialextent and hence it will have some dimension in the x-direction.

FIG. 3. shows the “book” 300 displayed on the computer screen,henceforth referred to as the computer book. When using the currentembodiment of the browsing device 100, in order to allow the user tohave an idea of the thickness of the computer book 300 on both sides, sothat the user can have a good idea of the approximate location of thecurrently viewed pages in the document involved, the thickness 310 ofthe computer book 300 on both sides is shown on the computer screen nextto the displayed pages 301 as shown in FIG. 3.

In the browsing of a real book, the thumb selects the page to jump to bysliding along the side until it reaches that page. In the process ofaccomplishing this, the thumb slides along the side of the book in adirection perpendicular to the edge of the book the thumb is touching(similar to. the x-direction in FIG. 1B) by an amount proportional tohow far along in the document the page to be jump to is from the currentpage. Because in the browsing device 100 depicted in FIG. 1B, the widthof the slanted surface felt by the thumb does not change, even as theamount of material/number of pages present on that “side” of the “book”changes, the translation of the x-position of the thumb to a page in thedocument to jump to is slightly mote complicated.

Consider initially no force is applied onto the sensor area 121 by thethumb 122 and a certain page of the document involved is beingdisplayed. When the thumb 122 is placed at any position x=XT1 on thesensor area 121 and when a force is applied for a time longer than auser-specified pre-defined, short period, preferably, but not limitedto, a range of 100 milliseconds to 1 second, the document is movedthrough forward (or backward if the left sensor area 171 is activated bythe thumb 172). The speed of movement is proportional to the forceapplied. If the force is applied only momentarily, (e.g., less thanpreferred 100 millisecond) no movement through the document takes place,but a starting position for any subsequent jumping process is taken tobe XT1. When the thumb 122 is moved from x=XT1 to a position XT2(XT2>XT1) and the thumb 122 is pressed momentarily, a jump is made to apage in the document that is further along. Let XS be the width of thesensor area 121 and let PR be the number of pages remaining from thecurrent page to the end of the document (or to the beginning of thedocument, if the left device 101 is activated). PJ, the number of pagesto skip over is equal to PR*(XT2−XT1)/(XS−XT1). That is, at any giventime, the distance along the slanted surface from the current thumbposition XT1 to the edge, XS, is treated as being proportional to thenumber of pages remaining from that point to the end or beginning of thedocument. In the case of using the method of scrolling to display thedocument in which the material is not organized into pages, then PRbecomes the amount of material, say the number of lines of material,remaining and PJ becomes the amount of material to be skipped over.

After the thumb 122 moves from the starting position XT1 in the positivex-direction, before it applies any force to effect a jump, it is atliberty to move between XT1 and XS in the positive or negativex-directions to search for a page it wishes to jump to. If in thisprocess the thumb 122 moves in the negative x-direction beyond thestarting position XT1, whatever new position the thumb 122 finds itselfin and after having applied a momentary force in that position, thatposition will become a new starting position XT1 for the computation ofany subsequent jump. If the thumb 122 did not apply any momentary forceafter having moved in the negative x-direction beyond the startingposition XT1, and then it moves back past XT1 in the positivex-direction, the starting position for any subsequent jump will be XT1.

When one continues to apply force for longer than the user-definedpre-defined, short time period or the sensor area 121 using the thumb122 after a jump is made while holding the thumb 122 at the sameposition, the movement through the document begins from that page/pointonwards, and the speed of movement is proportional to the force appliedas before.

The starting position of the thumb 122 for the jumping process can be atx=0 or any position XT1 in the x-direction. But starting at x=0 allowsthe use of a larger width (from x=0 to XS) to correspond to theremaining material and thus a better resolution of control in terms ofjumping/skipping. At. any given time, no matter how much remainingmaterial there is, while one is moving through the document by havingthe thumb 122 at a given position, one can always move the thumb 122back to a position of smaller x (that does NOT trigger a movementthrough the document in the opposite direction—one has to use the otherdevice operated by the other hand to change direction) or x=0, and applysome force momentarily to signify that the user has now repositioned thethumb 122. The user may then continue the process of moving through thedocument by applying the force longer than a pre-def ined, short moment,or use this current position as a new reference/starting point (XT1) andslide the thumb 122 to a new position (XT2) to skip through somematerial. The movement of the thumb 122 back to a smaller x or x=0 todefine a starting position XT1 before the jumping process gives the usera better resolution for the jumping/skipping control.

The mechanisms for jumping to some other parts of the document andmovement through the document under the control of the thumb 122 asdescribed above are described in the flowchart in FIG. 4.

Consider initially a certain page of the document is being displayed. Instep 401, the thumb 122 is placed at position XT on the sensor area 121.The process flows to step 402, where a check is made if a force has beenapplied momentarily or longer (than a predefined, short time) If not,nothing happens; the thumb 122 may move to a new position XT (step 403)or stay in the same position XT. If an affirmative response is receivedin step 402, a check is made to see if the thumb has applied the forcelonger than momentarily. If so, the process flows to step 405 wheremovement through the document is initiated (with a speed proportional tothe force applied and a direction depending on whether the left-handdevice 101 or the right-hand device 100 in the mini-book configuration200 is activated). If a negative response is received in step 404, theprocess flows to step 406. similarly, after initiation of movementthrough the document in step 40S, the process also flows to step 406. Instep 406, the starting position XT1 is assigned the value of the currentthumb 122 position XT. The process then flows to step 407 where thethumb 122 either stays in.the current position or moves to a newposition XT (<>XT1). The process then flows to step 408, where a checkis made to find out whether XT is greater than XT1. If so, a check ismade in step 409 to find out whether a force is applied at XT; if not,nothing happens and the thumb may move to a new position XT (<>XT1) instep 407. If the response to step 409 is affirmative, the process flowsto step 410, where XT2 is assigned the value of the current XT. Theprocess then flows to step 411 where a value PJ=PR*(XT2−XT1)/(XS−XT1) iscomputed. (PR is the number of pages or amount of material remainingfrom the current page to the end of the document if the right-handdevice 100 in the mini-book configuration 200 is now being activated orfrom the current page to the beginning of the document if the left-handdevice 110 in the mini-book configuration 200 is being activated. XS isthe width of the sensor area 121.) A jump is effected that skips over PJpages or PJ amount of material in the document. The process then flowsback to step 401 where the process repeats.

If in step 408, XT is found to be smaller than XT1, then the processflows to step 412 which checks if a force has been applied at XTmomentarily or longer. If not, nothing happens, the process flows tostep 407 where the thumb can move to a new position XT. If so, step 413checks to see if the force applied is longer than a pre-defined, shortperiod. If the force applied is longer than a pre-defined, short period,the process flows to step 414 where movement through the document isinitiated (with a speed proportional to the force applied and adirection depending on whether the left-hand device 101 or theright-hand device 100 in the mini-book configuration 200 is activated).If a negative response is received in step 413, the process flows tostep 406 where the starting position XT1 is assigned the current valueof XT. After the initiation of movement through the document in step414, the process also flows to step 406.

The above described method of jumping/skipping through the pages throughthe use of the sliding of the thumb 122 over a certain distance (in thex-direction) is referred to as the relative distance method whereas thejumping/skipping in the process of browsing through a physical book usesabsolute distance (in the direction perpendicular to the edge of thebook). Another embodiment of the browsing device 1000 that uses absolutedistance will be described later in reference to FIG. 10.

To provide the user with. feedback of his/her thumb movement on thesensor area 121 along the x-direction (FIG. 1B) before he/she effectsthe jump to a different part of the document involved, an indication ofthe.position of the thumb 122 is provided on the thickness 310 area ofthe book 300 displayed on the screen next to the pages 301 currentlybeing viewed (FIG. 3). Recall that the thumb 122 starts from one pointon the sensor area 121 and slides on the sensor area 121 in thex-direction before a force is applied to effect the jump. In thisprocess, the thumb 122 slides over many points on the x-position sensor121 on the slanted surface 120. An indication is made on the computerscreen of the location of the page that would be jumped to had the thumb122 applied a force at any given point along the x-direction. As thethumb 122 slides on the sensor area 121 before the application of theforce, the whole width of the thickness 310 displayed on the screen nextto the currently viewed pages 301 is preferably divided into two parts.One part corresponds to all the pages that will be skipped if a forcewere applied at that point in the x-direction on the sensor area 121.The other part corresponds to the pages that remain from the page jumpedto if a force were applied to the end of the document (if one is movingforward through the document and the right hand device 100 in themini-book configuration 200 is being activated) or to the beginning ofthe document (if one is moving backward through the document and theleft-hand device 101 in the mini-book configuration 200 is beingactivated). There are two ways to display the boundary (a thin line)between these two parts that corresponds to the point or page in thedocument jumped to if a jump were to take place. Preferably within thethickness area 310 on the computer screen is shown by the boundary, athin line, as being different in darkness, texture, or color (preferablydarkness) from the rest of the thickness 310—hence one would see a lineoriented perpendicular to the x-direction (parallel to the y-direction,FIG. 1B) and whose.length is confined to the thickness 310 region movingin the positive or negative x-direction depending on the direction ofmovement of the thumb 122 on the sensor area 121. Alternatively, onepart, say the left part, is shown as being different in darkness,texture or color (preferably darkness) from the other part, say theright part—hence one would see one part expanding and the othercontracting, or vice versa, depending on the direction of movement ofthe thumb 122 on the sensor area 121.

The use of the four buttons 131 to 134 on the bottom surface 130 of thebrowsing device 100 will be described for bookmarking. During operation,each of the other four fingers 141 to 144 except the thumb 122 is placednear each of the four buttons 131 to 134 and each of these buttons ismeant to be operated by the finger nearest to it. At any moment when oneis viewing a page of the document and decides that it might be ofinterest to return to later, one presses one of the buttons 131 to 134momentarily and then lets go, either once or twice, depending on whetherone wishes to create a finger-bookmark or a permanent-bookmarkrespectively as will be described below. The page will then bebookmarked and a bookmark 320 is displayed on the screen as shown inFIG. 3—sticking out from the position of the page/point that it marks onthe side of the book 300. One can use the same button (one of thebuttons 131 to 134) to bookmark more than one point/page. All thebookmarks 320 that are created by the same button (i.e., one of buttons131 to 134) are clustered together (e.g., one of clusters 361 to 364)and displayed as such as shown in FIG. 3.

After one has bookmarked a certain page/point on a certain side (right,371, or left, 372, FIG. 3) of the book, if one moves through thedocument past that page/point (forward or backward respectively), thebookmark will either disappear or be transferred to the other side,depending on whether the bookmark is a finger-bookmark or apermanent-bookmark respectively. The finger-bookmarks are more like thebookmarks created by the use of the fingers when browsing through aphysical book—they are more temporary and they “disappear” after thebookmarked page/point has been passed. In the case of a page/pointmarked by a permanent-bookmark, when the page/point is passed thebookmark will be transferred to the other side and be grouped in thecluster that corresponds to the same cluster in the other side fromwhich it originates. (The preferred method by which this transfer is tobe effected and shown on the computer screen depends on the method ofmovement through the document which will be described later togetherwith the description of those methods). To remove a permanent-bookmark,one presses the corresponding button twice in quick succession (e.g.,“double click”) when the bookmarked page/point is currently in view.(The permanent bookmarks are more like the bookmarks created byinserting, say, a slip of paper when one is browsing through a physicalbook.) The finger-bookmarks and the permanent-bookmarks are displayeddifferently on the computer screen. (They are differentiated either byshape, size, color, marking, or lettering.)

For the finger-bookmark, if one wishes that the bookmark not be removedafter one has moved through the document past the correspondingpage/point, one can transfer it to the other side by creating anotherbookmark using the fingers on the other hand, much like what one doeswhen browsing through a physical book. The permanent-bookmarking processtends to create many bookmarks and they should be used only. ifnecessary.

To return to a bookmarked page/point (whether it be finger-bookmarked orpermanent-bookmarked), one presses the button (one of 131-134 or one of181-184) that corresponds to the cluster to which the page/point belongsand uses the corresponding thumb 122 or 172 to apply force to thecorresponding sensor area 121 or 171 while continuing to press thebutton. If there is more than one bookmarked page in each cluster, thepage that is nearest the current page will be jumped to. (Note that thiscan obliterate some finger-bookmarks in the other clusters if in thisprocess the document is moved through past those corresponding pages.)After having jumped to a bookmarked page, if one wishes to take sometime to read that page, one has to stop applying force using the thumb122 or 172 on the corresponding sensor area 121 or 171 or else theprocess of moving through the document will begin. One should also stoppressing the corresponding button (one of 131-134 or one of 181-184).(This is to relieve the finger of unnecessary tension). If this page wasa finger-bookmarked page and one wishes to bookmark this page again, onehas to press the button (one of 131-134 or one of 181-184) again (onceor twice depending on whether now one wishes to finger-bookmark orpermanent-bookmark it respectively).

To avoid confusion and speed up the browsing process, even though thefacility of using one button to bookmark more than one page is provided,hence creating the cluster of bookmarks associated with that button, itis to be avoided if possible. Hence, one should try to use as many ofthe buttons (131-134 and 181-184) provided as possible. That is, ifthere are four pages to be bookmarked on one side, one should use allfour buttons (131-134 or 181-184, depending on whether it is the rightside 371 or left side 372 respectively that is involved), creating onlyone bookmark in each cluster.

This way, a speedier jump to a desired bookmarked page is possiblebecause one does not have to jump through those unwanted pagesbookmarked in the same cluster before one arrives at the intended page.

At any given time, only one of the hands is supposed to performoperations (i.e., only one of the. two browsing devices 100 and 101 issupposed to be activated). If both hands try to perform operations atexactly the same time, there will be no operation performed. If one handperforms an operation before the other hand, then that hand takespriority. One exception to this is when the device is used inconjunction with a flipping method 500 or 540 of moving. through thedocument involved to be described in detail later (with reference toFIG. 5A and FIG. 5E), whereby the operation of both hands is used tocreate a “fan display” 600 or 610 (with reference to FIG. 6A and FIG.6B).

FIG. 2B depicts one embodiment of the screen configuration 210. In thisconfiguration 210, the operations are identical to that described abovefor the mini-book configuration 200 depicted in FIG. 2A, except now, inthis configuration 210, the two browsing devices 100 and 101 areseparated and attached to the sides of a screen 216(such as an IBM ColorMonitor G50, Part Number 96G1593). This is achieved by first attachingthese devices to a frame 21S, and then attaching the frame 215 to thescreen 216. This is done because the browsing devices 100 and 101 needto be firmly attached and we would like to use existing computer screens216 and hardware with no necessity of any physical modifications tothem.

FIG. 2C depicts one embodiment of the mouse configuration 220. In thisconfiguration 220, two browsing devices 100 and 101 are joined togetherin the same manner as in FIG. 2A and also mounted onto a mouse 225(e.g., a mouse adapted from the IBM Enhanced Mouse II, Part Number13H6714). This allows the use of one hand for operating the browsingdevices 100 and 101 as well as the mouse 225. The operation of thebrowsing devices 100 and 101 is largely the same as that described forthe mini-book configuration 200 except for the following observations.The mouse-browser configuration 220 is preferably placed on a flatsurface like the top of a. table, but not typically held in the hands.The four buttons 131-134 on the bottom surface. 130 (FIG. 2A) of theright-hand device 100 are now not primarily used, but instead the fourbuttons 111-114 on the top surface 110 replace the functions of the fourbottom buttons 131-134. Similarly, for the left-hand device 101, thefour buttons 161-164 on the top surface 160 replace the functions of thefour buttons 181-184 on the bottom surface 180 (FIG. 2A). The eight topbuttons 111-114 and 161-164 are now operated only by the index fingerwhich also operates the mouse buttons 226 and 227. For the operation ofthe left sensor area 172, the thumb of the same hand is preferably used.For the operation of the right sensor area 121, one of the other threefingers, normally the middle finger, is used. (For a left-handed,“southpaw”, this is reversed).

FIG. 2D depicts one embodiment of the gyro-mouse configuration 230(which includes an adapted gyro-mouse such as a GyroPoint® Desk fromGyration, Inc. of Saratoga, Calif., Part Number PA00038-001). Currently,there is a type of mouse called the gyro-mouse that can be held in thehand and used away from the table top. This gyro-mouse 235 can beattached to the mini-book configuration 200 of FIG. 2A which consists ofa right-hand browsing device 100 and a left-hand browsing device 101,and the whole assembly—the gyro-mouse configuration 230—can be used inthe hand away from the table top. Because in the mini-book configuration200, both hands are used and the bottom buttons 131-134 and 181-184 areoperated by all the fingers except the thumbs, the gyro-mouse 230 mustbe attached to the mini-book configuration. 200 in such a way that theindex fingers can also be used to operate the gyro-mouse buttons 236 and237, as shown in FIG. 2D. The gyro-mouse buttons 236 and 237 must benear enough to the buttons 131 and 181 operated by the index fingers sothat the. index fingers can reach them (buttons 236 and 237) easily.While preferably a specially made gyro-mouse 235 will be constructed tojoin with the mini-book configuration 200 as shown in FIG. 2D, themini-book 200, screen 210, and mouse 220 configurations of the browsingdevices 100 and 101 preferably add modularly to existing computerhardware.

FIG. 2E depicts the one-hand configuration 240 of the browsing device.In this configuration, only one browsing device 100 is used, freeing onehand to do something else. During operation, the device 100 is held inone hand in much the same way as that in the mini-book configuration200—the thumb is placed on the sensor area 121 while the other fingersoperate the buttons 131-134 on the bottom surface 130. The operation islargely the same as that for the mini-book conf iguration 200 except nowthe browsing device 100 functions as the left device 101 as well as theright device 100 in the mini-book configuration 200. A triple click ofthe button 131 (refer to FIG. 1B—the button nearest the index finger)toggles between these two states. This configuration 240 may not handleas well as the mini-book configuration 200 but it frees one hand forother operations. (Instead of triple-clicking an existing buttom such asbutton 131, an alternative is to add another buttom to the existingbuttons and allow a single click of that button to effect the sameoperation.)

FIG. 2F depicts the one-hand-gyro-mouse configuration 250 of thebrowsing device. In this configuration, a gyro-mouse 255 is attached toone browsing device 100. The operation is largely the same as in theone-hand configuration 240 in FIG. 2E except now the one index fingeralso operates the mouse buttons 2S6 and 257. Again, like in the case ofthe gyro-mouse configuration 230 depicted in FIG. 2D, in thisconfiguration the buttons 256 and 257 of the gyro-mouse 255 must bepositioned near the button 131 on the bottom surface 130 of the browsingdevice 100 that is nearest the index finger during normal operations ofthe device 100 so that the index finger can operate all three buttons256, 257 and 131 easily. If no such gyro-mouse 255 exists, then aspecially made one has to be used.

The browsing device 100 employed in the configurations 200, 210, 220,230, 240, and 250, among others, can be used in conjunction with anumber of different methods for displaying the movement through thedocument involved on the computer screen in a computer book. Amongothers, there are five methods which will be described here.

FIG. 5A depicts one preferred embodiment of the flipping method 500. Inthis method, the material in the document is organized into pages and asone moves through the document, the pages are shown to flip across fromright to left or vice versa, depending on the direction of movement,much like what happens when one flips through a physical book. In thismethod, when a permanent-bookmark is being transferred from one side tothe other, it will be shown to be attached to the page, sticking outfrom the page, and flipped together with the page. Also, to be consonantwith the flipping of successive pages, in the process of jumping to adifferent page in the document, the pages skipped are shown to flipacross together as a thick page (the thickness being proportional to thenumber of pages involved) like in the case of a physical book. Thedisplay of the thicknesses of the material in the document on both sidesof the displayed pages, the use and display of bookmarks(finger-bookmarks or permanent-bookmarks), the operations ofbookmarking, and the display of the location, on the thicknesses, of thepage/point in the document that would be jumped to were jumping to beeffected at any given moment. based on, say, the thumb's x-position onthe sensor area 121 at that moment are like what is described above forthe computer book 300 in FIG. 3.

Using commercially available computer hardware and software, one methodof generating flipping pages from a document stored in semiconductor,magnetic, optical, or other media on a personal (e.g. laptop) computerin the form of a text file, such as a text file in the Windows 95operating system involves several steps. First, the contents of the textfile is displayed on the computer screen (such as an IBM Color MonitorG50, part Number 96G1593) using, say a word processing software such asMicrosoft® Word Version 7.0 from Microsoft Corporation, Part Number62306 running on the computer. The image on the computer screen which isstored in the screen dump can then be put into the clipboard using the“Print Screen” key on the keyboard (such as an IBM Keyboard, Part Number06H9742). The clipboard can be imported as an image file into a graphicssoftware such as Visioneer PaperPort™ from Visioneer Communications,Inc. of Palo Alto, Calif., Part Number C1132-90000 running on thecomputer using the “Paste” command provided by the software, and thenexported and stored as an image file in, say, the TIFF format. Each pagein the document can be captured in this way in one TIFF file. Then,using a video editing/movie making software such as Adobe Premier™ 4.0from Adobe Systems Incorporated of Mountain View, Calif., part Number02970103 running on the computer, the TIFF files, each containing onepage of the document, can be imported into the software and using theMotion command and superimposition facilities provided by the software a“movie” of flipping pages can be generated and if necessary, exportedand stored in a motion picture format such as a .AVI file.

For the purpose of the present invention, the variouscomponents/operations described above for generating flipping pages froman existing document file using currently available software arepreferably integrated into a single software process that may beconveniently ported from one computer to the next and which requiresminimal human intervention. An alternative method reads from theexisting document file directly, generates the necessary images for allthe pages, and then creates a “motion picture” of flipping pages fromthese images. To move through the document forward or backward at anyselected speed, mechanisms similar to forwarding or reversing at anyselected speed when viewing a motion picture file (such as one in the.AVI format) using a software video player (such as Video for Windowsfrom Microsoft Corporation) are used. The other features such as thethicknesses 310 (FIG. 3), the bookmarks 320 (FIG. 3) and the operationsof bookmarking etc. are also incorporated.

While it is preferred to use off-the-shelf hardware and software toeffect the flipping/flashing/scrolling/etc. effect, customized hardwareand software can be used to perform an equivalent function.

FIG. 6A depicts one embodiment of a open fan display 600 and FIG. 6Bdepicts one embodiment of a collapsed fan display 610 that can becreated in conjunction with the flipping method 500. In the process ofeffecting the flipping of the pages using one thumb (say, the rightthumb 122, which operates the sensor area 121 in the configuration 200,say), one. can stop the pages from being completely flipped to the otherside by the use of the other thumb (say, the left thumb 172) by applyinga force on its associated sensor area (171 in the configuration 200,say) after the page has begun flipping. This force will be referred toas the opposing force. The force applied by the other thumb (in thiscase, the right thumb 122) will be referred to as the flipping force.

There are two kinds of fan display that can be created—the open fandisplay 600 or the collapsed fan display 610—depending on the magnitudeof the opposing force. If the opposing force is of a magnitude roughlythe same as or smaller than the flipping force, the pages 603 that havebeen flipped since the beginning of the process (i.e., since theopposing force has been applied) form equal angles between themselves aswell as the two “flat” pages 601 and 602 on the left and right sides ofthe book as depicted in FIG. 6A. This creates the open fan display 600.If the opposing force is greater than the other force, a collapsed fandisplay 610 is created as shown in FIG. 6B. In this display 610, all thepages 605 that have been flipped since the beginning of the process(i.e., since the opposing force has been applied) are collected in athick page 604 that forms an equal angle with the two “flat” pages 606and 607 on the left and right sides of the book as depicted.in FIG. 6B.

The open fan display 600 or the collapsed fan display 610 can also becreated in conjunction with the process of jumping to another page.Earlier it was described that in order to be consonant with the flippingof successive pages, in the process of jumping to a different page inthe document, the pages skipped are shown to flip across together as athick page (the thickness being proportional to the number of pagesinvolved) like in the case of a physical book. This thick, flipping pagewill be treated like any of those flipping pages 603 in the process ofcreating the open fan display 600 or the flipping pages 605 in theprocess of creating the collapsed fan display 610. Hence after a jumpingprocess has been initiated and after the skipped pages have begunflipping across together as a thick page, if one were to now apply anopposing force, the process of creating a open fan display 600 or acollapsed fan display 610 will begin as described above.

If the thumb that initiated the flipping now stops applying force—i.e.,the flipping force—to the sensor area (121 or 171 in the configuration200, say) , the pages will freeze in the open fan display 600 or thecollapsed fan display 610, depending on which type of display is beingcreated. For the collapsed fan display 610, at the moment when theflipping force stops, there could be one page 605 that is still in theprocess of being flipped as depicted in FIG. 6B. This page willimmediately collapse onto the center, thick page 604 that has collectedin it all those pages flipped earlier.

The open fan display 600 facilitates the viewing of many pagessimultaneously, even though only the rough contents of each page can beproperly viewed. The collapsed fan display 610 facilitates the viewingand comparison of the two flat pages 606 and 607 that are currently inview since all the flipped pages 605 have been collected in the center,thick page 604 that does not block the view of the two flat pages 606and 607.

If now the thumb that applied the opposing force—the thumb that prevented the complete flipping of the pages—removes its force, and thenthat is followed by the normal initiation of the flipping action byeither thumb, the fanned out pages 603 (in the case of the open fandisplay 600) or the center thick page 604 (in the case of the collapsedfan display 610) will collapse and flip over to the appropriate side andnormal flipping begins.

FIG. 5B depicts one embodiment of the sliding method 510. In this method510, the material in the document is organized into pages and the pagesare shown to slide across the screen, much like what happens when oneviews a microfilm. However, unlike the case of the conventionalmicrofilm viewer, more than one page can be displayed here, depending onthe choice of the user. In this method 510, when moving through thedocument, the pages are seen to move horizontally within a fixedframe—as a page slides leftward, as it appears on the right side of theframe, its left side appears first and as it reaches the left side ofthe frame, the left side of the page would disappear first and viceversa for rightward movement. FIG. 5B shows two pages being displayed atthe same time but in this method 510 any number of pages can bedisplayed at the same time, depending on the user's preference and theselection made.

In the sliding method 510, when a permanent-bookmark is beingtransferred from one side to the other, it will be shown to disappearfrom the side from which it originates and appear on the other side whenthe page involved reaches the other side. To be consonant with thesliding of successive pages, in the process of jumping to some otherparts of the document, the page(s) jumped to is shown to slide into viewmuch like what happens when one operates a physical microfilm. Thedisplay of the thicknesses of the material in the document on both sidesof the displayed pages, the use and display of bookmarks(finger-bookmarks or permanent-bookmarks), the operations ofbookmarking, and the display of the location, on the thicknesses, of thepage/point in the document that would be jumped to were jumping to beeffected at any given moment based on, say, the thumb's x-position onthe sensor area 121 at that moment are like what is described above forthe computer book 300 in FIG. 3.

To generate sliding pages, a method similar to that described for theflipping pages for FIG. 5A can be used.

FIG. 5C depicts the flashing method 520, where the material in thedocument is organized into pages and one or more than one page at a time(as specified by the user) is flashed onto the screen as one movesthrough the document—that is, the current page(s) disappears and thenext page(s) before or after the current page(s) appears. FIG. 5Cdepicts, in particular, the case in which two pages are displayed at atime. When more than one page is displayed on the screen and flashing iseffected, it can be effected in two modes—the exclusive mode or theoverlapping mode. Consider the case of displaying two pages at one timeon the screen as shown in FIG. 5C. In the exclusive mode, the next twopages that appear are the two pages that follow the righthand page ofthe previously displayed pages. In the overlapping mode, the next twopages that appear are the righthand page from the previously displayedpages and the page that follows that page. similarly, when more than twopages are displayed at any given time, the exclusive mode dictates thatthe next pages displayed will not be the same as the currently displayedpages and the overlapping mode dictates that the next pages displayedcan have some but not all of the pages that are the same as thecurrently displayed pages. Hence the overlap refers to the same pagesthat are displayed in the current display as well as the very nextdisplay of the pages. For more than two pages, the user can specify theamount of overlap for the overlapping mode.

In the flashing method 520, when a permanent bookmark is beingtransferred from one side to the other, it will be shown to disappearfrom the side from which it originates and appear on the other side whenthe page involved reaches the other side. The display of the thicknessesof the material in the document on both sides of the displayed pages,the use and display of bookmarks (finger bookmarks or permanentbookmarks), the operations of bookmarking, and the display of

the location, on the thicknesses, of the page/point in the document thatwould be jumped to were jumping to be effected at any given moment basedon, say, the thuib's x-position of the sensor area 121 at that momentare like what is described above for the computer book 300 in FIG. 3.

To generate sliding pages, a method similar to that described for theflipping pages for FIG. 5A can be used.

FIG. 5D depicts the scrolling method 530. Even though scrolling usuallyresults in a blur, this method can still benefit from the ease ofcontrol. using the browsing device 100. In this method 530, the materialin the document is not organized into distinct pages. Instead, lines oftext or portions of graphics disappear from the top of the display andappear at the bottom of the display or vice versa as the document ismoved through forward or backward respectively. The thicknesses 531 ofmaterial present before or after the currently viewed material are shownon the top and bottom of the display as shown in FIG. SD. The bookmarks532 (finger-bookmarks or permanent bookmarks) can likewise be displayedon these thicknesses 531. The operations of bookmarking and the displayof the location, on the thicknesses 531, of the page/point in thedocument that would be jumped to were jumping to be effected at anygiven moment based on the thumb's x-position on the sensor area 121 atthat moment are like what is described above for the computer book 300in FIG. 3.

To generate scrolling pages, a method similar to what is used inMicrosoft® Word Version 7.0, Part Number 62306 can be used, withappropriate enhancements for the display of the thicknesses 310 (FIG.3), the bookmarks 320 (FIG. 3) and the operations of bookmarking, etc.

If the mini-book configuration 200, say, is used in conjunction with thescrolling method 530 of moving through the document, the user can rotatethe mini-book configuration 200 held in his/her hand which is normallyused “horizontally”—with the left-hand device 101 held to the left andthe right-hand device 100 held to the right (FIG. 2A)—by, say, 90degrees clockwise, so that the left-handed device l01 is now on the topand the right-handed device loo is now on the bottom (to achieve this,the left and right wrists will have to bend a fair bit). The controlswill now be more natural because they correspond better to what is seenon the screen—i.e., the left-hand/top device 101 and theright-hand/bottom device 100 will now operate the bookmarks on the topand bottom respectively of the material shown on the screen in thescrolling method 530.

In the scrolling method 530, depending on the user's preference, ascroll bar 533 and a marker 534 on it, similar to what is normally usedin a word processor, can be added to one side, say the right side, ofthe displayed material, as shown in FIG. SD, to indicate the position ofthe currently viewed material in the document involved, but the marker534 here is not used in conjunction with the browsing device 100 foreffecting the scrolling of the document. (In current word processors,normally the marker 534 is used in conjunction with the mouse foreffecting the scrolling of the document.) Alternatively, bookmarks 535are added to the scroll bar 533 to indicate the pages bookmarked.However, the display of the bookmarks 532 on the top and bottom of thecurrently viewed material is still necessary because their positionsalong the top and bottom edges give an indication of the fingers and.buttons on the browsing devices 100 and/or 101 (depending on whether oneor two devices are being used) that are to be used to jump to the pagesthat they mark. In this method 530, when a bookmark is inserted, it isassociated with the material that is currently in view. Forpermanent-bookmarks, they disappear from one side (top or bottom) of thedisplay and appear on the other side (bottom or top respectively) whenthe associated material has gone completely out of view.

In the flashing method 520 and scrolling method 530, in the process ofjumping to some other parts of the document, the page(s) or parts of thedocument jumped to are flashed onto the screen, much like what happenswhen one uses the scroll bar in conjunction with the mouse to jump tosome other parts of the document in a typical word processor.

FIG. 5E depicts the vertical flipping method 540 of the browsing device.This method is similar to the flipping method 500 depicted in FIG. 5A,and except for the flipping action that is effected vertically insteadof horizontally, all other operations are the same as that described forthe flipping method 500, including the vertical equivalents of the openand collapsed fan displays depicted in FIGS. 6A and 6B.

Similar to the case described above for the scrolling method 530, if themini-book configuration 200, say, is used in conjunction with thevertical flipping method 540 of moving through the document, the usercan rotate the mini-book configuration 200 held in his/her hand which isnormally used “horizontally”—with the left-hand device 101 held to theleft and the right-hand device 100 held to the right (FIG. 2A)—by, say,90 degrees clockwise, so that the left-handed device 101 is now on thetop and the right-handed device 100 is now on the bottom (to achievethis, the left and right wrists will have to bend a fair bit). Thecontrols will now be more natural because they correspond better to whatis seen on the screen—i.e., the left-hand/top device 101 and theright-hand/bottom device 100 will now operate the bookmarks on the topand bottom respectively of the material shown on the screen in thevertical flipping method 540.

The simultaneous multiple indexing facility is now described. In theprocess of viewing a document, if there is a keyword or phrase that isof interest to the user, one can select it using one of the usualmethods—the mouse cum cursor method, the finger cum pressure-sensingcomputer display screen method, etc.—and then all those pages thatcontain the explanations or related topics of the selected item willbecome permanently-bookmarked—i.e., all the corresponding bookmarks 320will appear on the displayed computer book 300 like that described above(FIG. 3). On the bookmarks 320, markings, letters or otherwise, willappear to indicate the kind of information these pages contain about theselected item (e.g., basic definition, detailed elaboration, relatedconcepts, etc.). The name of the selected item will also appear on thecorresponding bookmark 320 (in case more than one item has beenselected). The user can then quickly jump to these pages. This facilityallows the user to bypass the need of having to move through thedocument first to an index (usually at the end of the document) tolocate the various references to the item of interest and then jump tothose corresponding pages. Many returns to the index would also have tobe carried out if there is more than one reference to the item involved.

FIG. 7 depicts an embodiment of a complete browsing system 700. In thissystem 700, a conversion software 710 (a computer program preferablycoded in a “C programming language”)is provided to pre-convert thedocument 701 to be viewed that is stored in the computer in whateverexisting form (e.g., such as in the form of a text file, stored on thehard disk in the Windows 95 operating environment) to a form 711 thatallows one of the five methods (500, 510, 520, 530 and 540) of movingthrough the document as described above or other methods to beimplemented and to be used in conjunction with the browsing device 740(in one of tha configurations 200, 210, 220, 230, 240, and 250 describedabove or other configurations). The document 701 in its existing form onthe computer can also be converted on the fly which may requirespecialized hardware to achieve the required speed of operation. Duringoperation, a browsing/viewing software 720 is also needed to convert thesignals from tha browsing device to effect all the operations on thedocument as. described above. The browsing/viewing software 720 (acomputer program preferably coded in a “C Programming language”) takesas its data input either the pre-converted data file 711 or the documentin its existing form 701 (to be converted on the fly during the browsingprocess). The browsing device 740 sends the necessary signals through abus 741 (preferably a 25 pin parallel port ribbon cable, although aserial bus or mouse line are example alternatives which requireappropriate cooperating multiplexing circuitry) and to a computer inputport 730 (preferably a 25 pin parallel port, or alteratively a mouseport or a RS-232 port) to the browsing/viewing software 720 to effectthe necessary operations .on the screen 721 of the computer.

FIG. 8 depicts one embodiment of the browsing device's 100 electricalblock diagram 800. The sensor area 121 on the browsing device 100 (FIG.1B) is made up of a force and position sensor that is used to sense theforce and position of the thumb 122 (or one of the other fingers) onthat area, and signals representing these two parameters are madeavailable through a Force and Position Signals. Generator Circuit 801(preferably the separated Force and Position Analog LP Interface circuitdescribed in the Interlink Electronics, Inc. document “FSR® IntegrationGuide and Evaluation Part Catalog with Suggested ElectricalInterfaces”). Respective Force and Position signals. are presented tothe computer through one of the input ports 730 (FIG. 7), to thesoftware 720 responsible to effect the necessary operations on thescreen of the computer. The signals from the buttons 111-114 and 131-134(of which are preferably on/off push-button toggle switches) on the topsurface 110 and bottom surface 130 respectively of the browsing device100 (FIG. 1B) are also transmitted to the computer via the bus 741. Acommon voltage line is available to send a corresponding common voltagethrough individual ones of the buttons 111-114 and 131-134 when therespective buttons are closed.

FIG. 9 depicts another embodiment 900 of the browsing device 100 of FIG.1B. This device 900 includes many thin, hard and flexible pieces ofmaterial 901 bound together in the manner of the binding of the pages ina book, except that the “flipping” side is made into a slanted surface920 in much the same way as in the device 100 depicted in FIG. 1B. Whenthe thumb 122 applies a force onto the slanted surface 920, the “pages”901 will bend like the pages in a normal book and the bending force issensed to effect the same operations as those performed by the thumb'sforce on the slanted surface 121 of the browsing device 100. To jump toa certain page, the thumb 122 slides along the slanted surface 920 inthe x-direction (similar to that defined for the browsing device. 100)until it reaches the desired position, say XT, and then it bends theremaining pages 901, much like one would bend the pages of a book in theprocess of holding onto the left and right edges of the book to browsethrough the pages, which results in a slight separation 960 of the pages901 for which x>XT from those pages for. which x<XT and a gap 960 in thepages 901 is created where the thumb 122 is placed. Thin film sensors970 are placed on the surfaces of these mini-pages 901 to sense theseparation 960 and hence the location to jump to in the documentinvolved. The mapping of the position of the thumb 122 to the pagejumped to in the document is identical to that used in the device 100depicted in FIG. 1B as described above in the flowchart in FIG. 4. Fourbuttons 911-914 are provided on the top surface 910 and four buttons931-934 are provided on the bottom surface 930 of the device 900 thatfunction like the four buttons 111-114 on the top surface 110 and thefour buttons 131-134 on the bottom surface 130 respectively of thebrowsing device 100. Mechanisms 951 and 952 are also provided to jointwo devices 900 (a left-hand and a right-hand version) together. Allother operations are identical to those described for the device 100depicted in FIG. 1B.

FIG. 10 depicts yet another embodiment 1000 of the browsing device 100of FIG. 1B. In this embodiment 1000, an LCD, plasma or other type ofdisplay screen 1005, much like what is normally used as a computermonitor, is fitted onto the slanted surface 1002 of the browsing device1000 as shown in the FIG. 10. It is used to display the amount ofmaterial present before and after the currently viewed material. To dothis, a thickness 1007 is displayed on the screen 1005 that isproportional to the amount involved, that changes with the changes ofthe amount involved. On this thickness 1007, bookmarks 1020 can bedisplayed that indicate the locations of the pages/parts of the documentinvolved. The same methods as described before for the computer book 300depicted in FIG. 3 are used here on the screen 1005 for the following:(a) display the change of thickness; (b) display the bookmarks, and (c)display, the thickness 1007, of the location of the page/point in thedocument that would be jumped to were jumping to be effected at anygiven moment based on the thumb's x-position on the sensor area 1006 atthat moment. Transparent force and position sensors 1006 overlay thescreen 1005 and function much like what has been described before forthe sensor area 121 in the browsing device 100 except that now the thumb122 can move to the “absolute” location of the page to be jumped toeffect the jumping. In this scheme, even though the thickness 1007 ofmaterial as well as the bookmarks 1020 are displayed on the screen 1005of the browsing device. 1000, they can also be displayed on the computermonitor screen like in the case described for the computer book 300 inFIG. 3 at the same time.

The absolute distance method for computing the point/page in thedocument to jump to when jumping is activated will be described. Let x=0be the x-position on the screen 1005 that is nearest the edge adjoiningthe top surface 1010 and the slanted surface 1002. Recall that theintersection of the thumb 122 with the slanted surface 1002 has somespatial extent and the thumb 122 is considered to be at position x1 ifit covers the point xl and some contiguous points x such that x>x1.Consider now that the thickness of the book displayed on the screen 1005is XS−XH, where XS is the width of the screen 1005. Let PR be the amountof remaining material in the document as defined before. The process ofjumping can only be activated when the thumb 122 is at XT>XH, and whenthat happens., the amount of material skipped, PJ, is equal toPR*(XT−XH)/XS.

In the embodiment of the browsing device 1000, four buttons 1011-1014are provided on the top surface 1010 and four buttons 1031-1034 areprovided on the bottom surf ace 1030 of the device 1000 that functionlike the fours buttons 111-114 on the top surface 110 and the fourbuttons 131-134 on the bottom surface 130 respectively of the browsingdevice 100. Mechanisms 1051 and 1052 are also provided to join twodevices 1000 (a left-hand and a right-hand version) together. All otheroperations are identical to those described for the device 100 depictedin FIG. 1B.

The above browsing system 700 (FIG. 7) is adapted to be used inconjunction with any software method that allows the reorganization ofthe material in the document involved to facilitate browsing/viewing.For example, under software control, in conjunction with the use of amouse cum cursor method, say, two or more pages in the document to becompared or parts of the document to be compared can all be broughttogether and displayed in the currently viewed page(s). This may beachieved by, say, using the mouse cum cursor to first select parts ofthe current viewed pages by clicking the mouse button and dragging themouse like what is normally done or to select one of the currentlyviewed pages by double clicking on that page where the cursor is nowpositioned. And then, after moving to another part of the document, thecursor can now be positioned over a point on one of the currently viewedpages and the selected material can be brought into view by one click ofthe mouse button. The selected material, if it is one page full, willsimply cover the page on which the cursor was placed before the oneclick of the mouse button to bring it into view. If the selected.material is not one page full, it will be positioned, say, to the rightand bottom of the cursor, and cover part of the page on which the cursorwas placed before the one click of the mouse button to bring it intoview. Another click of.the mouse button will remove this temporarilyplaced material to allow one to see what was on the page originally.This temporarily placed material will also automatically disappear fromthe page on which it was placed after that page disappears from viewafter the user activates movement to other parts of the document.

The above browsing system 700 can also be used in conjunction with anysoftware method that allows the highlighting of selected portions of thematerial or annotations of the pages in the document involved tofacilitate browsing/viewing/reading.

The above browsing system 700 is suitable for use not just for browsingthrough or viewing documents that do not require any processing of theircontents while they are being viewed, but also in conjunction with aword-processing system. Instead of creating a document and processing iton a computer screen like what is normally done, and then scroll up anddown to view and browse through it using the usual mouse cum scroll barmethod, the method of viewing and browsing through the document asdescribed in the above browsing system 700 can be used. The process. ofentering/deleting material in the document can also be made to beconsonant with the. method of movement through the document (i.e., oneof the methods 500, 510, 520, 530 and 540 described in FIGS. 5A-5E). Ifthe word processing is used in conjunction with, say, the flippingmethod 500 of moving through the document, as one finishes enteringmaterial for the right-hand page, the page will flip over to reveal anew, empty page for the entering of material. As one deletes materialuntil nothing is left on the currently viewed pages, continued deletionwill effect a flipping back to the previous page. Similar mechanisms canbe used in conjunction with the other three non-scrolling methods ofmoving through the document—namely the sliding method 510, the flashingmethod 520, and the vertical flipping method 540.

The above browsing system 700 is adapted for use in conjunction with anysoftware in which there is information/icons of control “buttons” to bedisplayed, either for viewing or manipulating, that cannot be fittedwithin one computer screen. In this case, scrolling in conjunction withthe use of a mouse is often done, or sub-menus and sub-operations can beselected by pressing icons of “buttons” on the screen. In the case ofselection of sub-menus and sub-operations, the sub-menus or displayscontaining buttons for sub-operations are flashed on the screen oncethey are selected. When there is a large amount of this kind ofinformation/operations present in the software, it will benefit from theuse of the browsing system—the system can provide a good idea of whatkinds of information/operations are available, where they can be foundand how they are related to each other, as well as fast access to them.To be used in conjunction with the current browsing system 700, thesemenus/sub-menus and buttons for operations/sub-operations can all beorganized into a “book” and access to them can be effected by thebrowsing system 700 described above.

Currently, the most popular and convenient form of human-computerinterface is the “windows” interface. This interface grows out of the“desktop metaphor” in which manipulating items on a computer screen islikened to manipulating items on a desktop. This kind of interface,though it is a vast improvement over previous kinds of interface and isvery friendly to use, still suffers from one of the problems ofmanipulating items on a desktop—a person's desktop tends to get verymessy and things are hard to find when there are too many of thempresent. In the windows interface, when there are a lot ofsub-directories/files within a directory that cannot be fitted withinone window or one screen, they are to be located by scrolling throughthe use of a mouse, with all the attendant problems as described abovefor the browsing of information using this method. Also, when manywindows are opened, they tend to obscure each other and those that arecurrently not in view are hard to find because their locations (in the“third dimension”—the “direction perpendicular to the screen”) are notfixed, much like a scattered collection of papers on a desktop.

The human-computer interface can be improved by organizing thesedirectories/sub-directories or temporary working windows into “books” tobe manipulated by the browsing system 700 described above. Allinformation on the computer can be organized into one big book or morethan one book at any given moment, hence the “library metaphor”. Thereare at least three possible improvements: (a) sub-directory and fileicons that cannot be fitted onto one window/screen can be browsedthrough and better accessed if they are organized/implemented in a formto be used in conjunction with the browsing device/system 700 describedabove FIG. 11A depicts one embodiment of this in conjunction with theflipping method 500 of moving through the document: items1101—directories/sub-directories or files—in a window los are placed inthe pages of the book 1100 which is an instance of the computer book 500depicted in FIG. 5A; (b) sub-directories 1115 (FIG. 11B) and files 1116that are normally found in windows 1114 in the current window-basedsystems can be organized into chapters, sections, etc. in a computerbook 1120 (an instance of the computer book 500 depicted in FIG. 5A)instead and used in conjunction with the browsing system 700, anembodiment of which is depicted in FIG. 11D; and (c) items that arebeing worked on, either collections of files and sub-directories or thecurrent working areas in a software (such as a word-processor) whichcurrent systems present in “windows”, can be organized into pages in a“scrap book” to be used in conjunction with the browsing system 700 withits attendant advantages. FIG. 11C depicts one embodiment of this inconjunction with the flipping method 500 of moving through the document.Either each window 1125 maps onto one page or many windows 1125 can maponto one page in a computer book 1130 (an instance of the computer book500 depicted in FIG. 5A).

FIG. 12 describes a method for displaying a computer-based set ofinformation on a display screen controlled by the inventive browsingdevice. Step 1 displays a thickness image of a set of informationcorresponding to the size of a data file which holds the set ofinformation. The thickness image includes a left side portion and aright side portion which are displayed on the display screen. The leftside portion of the thickness image is displayed on the left side of thescreen and is proportional to an amount of the information that proceedsa given point in the set of information that is currently beingdisplayed on the display screen. The right-hand portion of the thicknessimage is displayed on the right-hand side of the display and isproportional to an amount of the information that comes after the pointas currently displayed on the display screen. For example, if thecurrently displayed point is near the end of the document, the left-handside of the display will have a thickness image that appears thickerthan that on the right-hand side.

After step 1, the process flows to step 82 where all existingfinger-bookmarks are displayed in a first image format. Then, in step83, all existing permanent-bookmarks, are displayed in a second format.Both the finger-bookmarks and the permanent-bookmarks are displayed inthe location in the thickness display corresponding to the locations ofthe material they bookmark. Then the process flows to step 84 where theuser elects to bookmark the currently viewed material and a new bookmark(finger-bookmark or permanent bookmark) is added to the display. After84, the process flows to step 85 where a position within the set ofinformation is jumped to in response to a jump position indicated by theinstrument (e.g., the user's finger). Once the position is jumped to,the process ends.

FIG. 13 describes a method for browsing a computer-based set ofinformation. The process starts in step 811 where a move command isgenerated to move a pointer through a set of information hosted on thecomputer either in a forward direction or a backward direction. Theprocess then flows to step 812 where the pointer is moved in response tothe command that was generated in step 811. The process then flows tostep 813 where the speed of movement of the pointer through theinformation is adjusted. The process then flows to step 814 where a jumpcommand is received. The process then flows to step 815 where a pointeris moved to a jump position in response to the received jump command.The process then moves to step 816 where a bookmark command is receivedto mark a desired portion of text or graphics information from the setof information. A user enters the bookmark command based on the desiredportion of textual graphics. The process then moves to step 817 wherethe desired portion is marked in the set of information corresponding tothe received bookmark command, afterwhich the process ends.

FIG. 14 is flowchart for a computer-interface process. The process.starts in step 820 where a set of information hosted on the computer isarranged in a set of books. Each of the books includes a subset of theinformation from the set of information hosted on the computer. Oncearranged, the process flows to step S21 where each of the books islabelled with a respective portion of the subset of informationcorresponding with each book. The process then flows to step S22 where,based on user input, a user can select a selected book by first viewingbooks which are displayed as a single book document image. The bookdocument image is made up of individual pages that correspond to therespective portions of the books. The process then flows to step S23where a command is generated, as actuated by the user, to move throughthe pages so that a user can view the individual pages and select adesired book. The process then flows to step S24 where the pages of thebook are displayed in an animated image where the pages of the bookdocument are either flipped (preferable), scrolled, slid or flashed onthe screen. The process then flows to step S25 where, while viewing theanimated image, the user via user input can select one of the pages. Byselecting one of the pages, the user has selected the desired book. Theprocess then flows to step S26 where the selected book is displayed asthe image of a book document. However, pages of the selected bookdocument include respective portions of the subset of informationcorresponding to the. selected book. The process then flows to. step S27where a move command is generated for moving a pointer through a subsetof the pages of the selected book. The process then flows to step S28where an animated image is displayed of the pages in the selected bookbeing shown as either flipped (preferable), scrolled, slid or flashed onthe screen. The process then flows to step S29 where a selected bookpage of the selected book is selected by the user via a user inputindication. Once the user has selected the desired book page, theprocess ends.

While particular embodiments of the present invention have beenillustrated and described, it will be appreciated that numerous changesand modifications will occur to those skilled in the art, and it isintended that the appended claims cover all those changes andmodifications which fall within the spirit and scope of the presentinvention.

Obviously numerous modifications and variations of the present inventionare possible in light of the above teachings. It is therefore to beunderstood that within the scope of the appended claims, the inventionmay be practiced otherwise than specifically described herein.

1. A computer user interface method, comprising the steps of: arranginga set of information hosted on a computer into a set of books, each bookcomprising a subset of said set of information; labeling each book witha respective portion of said subset of said set of information; andselecting a book from the set of books, said selecting step comprising,displaying said respective portions of said books as a book documentimage comprising pages, said pages corresponding to said respectiveportions of said books, generating a command for moving through saidpages, displaying an animated image of said pages of said book documentbeing at least one of flipped, scrolled, slid and flashed, and selectingsaid book when a selected one of said pages containing a selectionportion of said book is displayed in said displaying step.